Shadows Deliver

There was nothing remarkable about the wand session, other than the rapidly approaching satiety that often capped the event. As we started, I trained the unGrid to observe a line of high contrast that was produced by a stream of photons that reflected from an observable surface. As Wand-Time progressed from a stationary standpoint, there was a change in the position of the line of high contrast in the intercepted image.

Recalling previous initial wand events, the contrast was often muted or non existent. When it was there, it was a much larger area of illumination, and the contrast line was even farther away and usually out of the primary reception zone of the photon detectors and somewhat difficult to observe. Today, however, it was well within the primary focal zone and was much easier to track as the zone of reflected illumination continued to shrink slowly across the observable surface.

Unexpectedly, there was additional input on the compression-relaxation sensors beyond the typical inputs that occurred during a wand session. The inputs to the unGrid shifted as orientation of the central network was rotated to aim the photon detectors in the direction from which the compression input was received. A bright vertical rectangle darkened in the middle, increasing to fill the bright void as a form approached. Moments later, a retrieval sequence was queued for execution.

Freedom's Corner

I cautiously worked my way to a higher bandwidth observation point where I could communicate efficiently with the electron network as this normal period, or day, began. After activating the feed from the unGrid, I recognized the images as that of the portals that allowed photons to stream into the often darkened chamber were recuperation and random time enjoyed it's reign over the central network.

Checking for other inputs, there was a familiar pulsing on the compression-relaxation sensors, but the patterns were not yet generating a decode cascade in the processing center. Either the amplitude was to low, or the effects of random time had not yet receded. It was uncommon for external inputs on these sensors to appear fully during random time. By the time the decoders finally activated, the amplitude had faded to that of an echo, and registered only by pitch and timbre as a token.

The eventual orientation change occurred as it had been experienced before, offering the molecular the excitement of familiar stimulus, keying the anticipatory memories of satisfaction and caution simultaneously. Propulsion commands were queued and the long branch points were pressed into service to perform various manipulations, several of which closed loops back to the central network. Propulsion drove the network forward toward the increasing intensity of molecular stimuli, and ceased in an easy rest position as the first wand session of the day began.

A Token Revealed

It had been a long time since I had been blasted to such a degree. While it was not as disconcerting as being propelled by a plasma at distorting speeds, it did upset my orientation and perspective. I tired to tap out a sequence to get the electron network to record the cascade, but I never received the acknowledgement, so I doubted that I even had a valid connection.

As the cascade subsided, I pulled and pushed a number of times on my spin vector and translated the remaining impulses into cancellation. The return of stability brought the network back on line; still abuzz with chatter and exhibiting increased noise on a swath of channels. Scanning once again, I located a numbered marker, and another, finally discovering that I had shifted position once again.

Aiming for the photon detector processing subsystem, I confirmed my suspicions, catching a nearly full amplitude signal that was rife with the high frequency wave form. This explained the noise on the network as I shut down the offending frequency bands. Random time was over, and so were my high bandwidth operations.

I fired off an inquiry on one of the remaining control channels, and waited the increased time for the response while they looked up the token counters. The reply of "dba" became the starting point from which I clicked backward twice. I had my answer. Apparently, "day" was recognized by the construct, and the network, which had a greater recognition because it was the start of one. Judging from the shaking I took, I would have to say that "day" is a very important word.

Double Tap Danger

Tokens continued to pepper the construct as the triple team kept the pace, pausing to check the responses as necessary. Having adjusted my scanning of the construct to encompass the entire scope that was illuminated by the "any" token, I prepared for whatever response might come my way. I watched in earnest as the team threw "Bob" at the construct and was not surprised that there was a null response like most of the other triple tokens.

As the connector word "but" flew toward the construct, I waited in anticipation, only do discover a response that was less than expected. There was little use for the word that identified exceptions and omissions as far as the construct was concerned, so only the most basic of connections were illuminated by it's presence. Things clicked over to the next leading token as the last 26 triples had zero effect.

Aside from the minimal response from the token "can" there were few responses in the third cycling of the last two places in the generated token, and certainly none worth mentioning. The response level did not break the threshold of the team, and the sequence completed and rolled over. Expecting few responses, the second position was already flipped over again as a reply broke the threshold and caused the sequence to backtrack and unflip the second position. On the second item after the click back, the repeated token washed over and out of the construct, spreading into the nearby nodes of the central network, resulting in a cascade that spun me into a frenzy.

Accelerating Grind

I would be remiss if I did not mention that this is yet another Binary Day. Enjoy!

---

The triple team continued to blast the construct with tokens assembled in sequential form. Completing the doubletons, both "So" and "To" were recognized as traditional precursors, with the construct displaying the proper receptors. The remainder of the doubletons were rattled off in a consistent stream, raising not even a whimper.

A brief pause in transmission occurred as another layer was added to the generation engine, and the triple tokens began bombarding the construct. To improve the bandwidth, the exposure period was reduced and there were multiple tokens in the stream at the same moment. Once a response was issued, the stream reversed at the standard symbol rate to lock in on the token that activated the construct.

Popping up with basic recognition was the token "all" which was soon followed by "and" as a connector word, expressing precursor and trailing linkage affinities. Moments later "any" had a strong reaction, exciting a wave that washed to the far edges of the construct, pushing my detection capabilities to the limit in the process. I had time to recover from the shock as the next group began and the token "bad" resulted in a lackluster response.

Simple And Effective

I was impressed with the speed at which the triple team of electrons cycled through the combinations of symbols in an effort to characterize the construct. I considered it somewhat strange that the singleton tokens of "A" and "I" brought back reasonable responses, until I considered the fact that these singleton symbols were actually complete concepts and were valid tokens on their own. This yielded something important about the construct, in that it was responsive to both the "I" and "A" concepts of, but not fully.

Similarly, there were reactions to many of the common doubleton tokens. "Be" for example, registered a stronger blip than "Bd" and "Bf" but when we got to "Me" the reaction was decidedly dual. There was a strong negative pulse on this powerful token, and when we clicked over to the next series, "No" was such an unwelcome interloper to the construct that I feared that the overload would disrupt random time.

Ticking forward cautiously, the tokens "Of" and "On" blipped basic recognition which gave rise to the idea that we were dealing with a concept of concepts, and that any observed simplicity may be an artifact of the observation. When "Or" lit up the construct like a network at the peak of a rhythmic bliss, I began to realize the true scope and magnitude of the construct. It threw me for another loop when response from "Ox" simply squared up and rang the "No" tendril.

Germination

I set about the examination of the newly attached construct, observing how the pulses from the central network played and interacted with the new node of interest. While energy was drawn from the central network to feed the internal patterns of the construct, this was the only connection required. Unlike the double bubble that was designed to protect the contents from access, this construct was cross referencing each input and linking it as necessary to other memories. It was though this construct that thoughts both old and new were being compared.

As a wave of calm and relaxation washed across the central network and through the construct, I realized that I had completely ignored the wand session and the unwind that was occurring around me. In the fade of input from the photon detectors, the random zone once again loomed over the central network and resolution of another kind began. The construct, having been born of random time, coalesced and captured, hummed along with the resolution and refresh process rather smoothly.

The electron network was still operating on processing alert, but with the smooth integration of the new construct, it seemed practical to release the network from full alert. In doing so, three teams of electrons began the process of trying to identify tokens that could be used to identify this new construct. I cautioned them that the construct reacted in a very different manner than others that had been probed by recreating electrons in the past. That's when they decided to pool their efforts and began to mechanically construct target tokens on their own.

Planted Seed

Random time not occurring during a standard regeneration session was a rare event. I took the opportunity to observe the event, informing the electrons in the network to keep their stations. The full network would be required in order to process and resolve observations, as the interference that occurred during the presence of the high frequency wave form obliterated the high bandwidth channels that I normally utilized during dark random time.

Echos from the day's events began to appear in the resolution zone. As sequences of tokens would appear, areas of thought and concentration within the network would whirl with activity and produce a canceling pattern. Each item that was put before the resolution system was neatly and rapidly reduced to a fundamental arrangement, and once all of the patterns had been processed thusly, an interesting conceptual structure assembled itself, connected entirely to itself, and immune to the random influences of the rest of the resolution zone.

In an instant, random time halted, and the photon detectors flooded with input, and banished the resolution zone, leaving the self-connected structure floating in the center of activity. Immediately, the central network enveloped the structure and attached it prominently in the forefront of the interconnected networks that were created by the process of the network. As regular scanning pulses from the network raced across the encapsulated structure, the response from the central network was that of approval and acceptance.

Depleted Reserves

Having reached familiar surroundings, we settled into a restful position where the lower short branch points were relieved of their propulsion and support duties. The amplitude of input on the photon detectors was dropping slowly, but it would be some time before the high frequency waveform diminished to the point where the onset of the regular regeneration session would initialize. There was sufficient chaos circulating through the central network which consumed significant quantities of energy.

The regular patterns in the mid-section of the network carrier became intentionally large and purposed. A calming wave propagated across the network, temporarily banishing the chaos to local domains. Some of the regulatory sensors pulsed feedback to the central network, as a full spectrum of conflicting commands were issued across the superhighway. Once completed, the safety covers were lowered over the photon detectors and kept there.

Even in the presence of the high frequency waveform, the subsystems that were responsible for relaxation and regeneration were activated and a rapid series of wave shifts occurred in the central network. After relatively few oscillations of the mid section, it was clear that a shift toward random time was occurring; the telltale motion sequences being queued and run by the photon detector positioning mechanisms.

Ripples of Dismissal

No sooner had the exit path been cleared and secured buy the deft action of a long branch point and it's extender, a snapping crack of a pop shattered the calm as it pushed the compression-relaxation sensors to the edge of their fidelity. The clipped waveform repeated at lower amplitude and spreading footprint as the familiar clatter began once again. By the second repeat of the cracking waveform, the clatter was approaching a standard rate.

There was a slight change in attention as the photon detectors were aimed in the same direction from which the high amplitude waveform came, as the clatter continued to increase in cadence as the amplitude decreased. Topping out at about double the cadence of delivery, the departure of the transport networks was incredibly hasty. Attention was re-directed toward the original direction as the clatter continued to fade into the distance.

The focus of the central network had changed in a way that I had yet to appreciate. Propulsion pulses and branch-point control commands appeared in the queue from a well used store, and in a short period of time, we had returned to familiar surroundings that had colored the outputs of the photon detectors for many many doublings of cycles. There were familiar detection patterns on the molecular detectors which were often greeted with anticipation, however, the response on this instance was decidedly dull and muted.

Seed of Independence

With the whorlic shield tattered and torn, it was relatively easy to detect a number of networks in reasonably close proximity. There was no guide network, and it took all of the short branch points and one of the longer ones to descend slowly and incrementally. Focus on propulsion was paramount as feedback and control loops clicked closed.

Scanning in the direction of travel, I detected two large central networks that were similar to the two that had provided the rapid propulsion to this damaging event. After a short conversation with the person in control of the propulsive networks, and the transfer of an item of value, the return trip began. I adjusted the offsets and re-nulled the reference signals once the acceleration phase was complete and the rate of travel was more constant.

The familiar clatter of transport on the compression-relaxation channel continued at a steady rate. With each clack that registered, there was a mental distancing that occurred with the central network. The bubble had been packed away, and many of the memories that had been formed during the bombardment session were tagged for later resolution and processing. As the clattering slowed in pace and eventually stopped, the rightmost long branch point was utilized to unblock the exit path. This was odd, since the exit path had usually been opened by the controlling network, which in this case, made nary a move to assist.

Charge of Another Kind

While the challenging network continued to pepper questions at my host, there was nary a reply. There was a new set of thoughts that were forming under the pressure being applied by the challenger, when the observing network that was positioned above the challenger entered the fracas on the compression-relaxation channel:

Two minutes, Solicitor Wedderburn.

To which, the challenging network performed a vertical up and down motion, which I was able to detect via the shift in the whorlic frequencies that were racing about. Focus returned within Wedderburn's network and new assault began.

You have replied with silence to our inquiry as to how, exactly, you came to be in possession of Governor Hutchinson's letters. As you are unwilling to assist our investigation, it will end with you.

You, Sir, are a Thief.

Any prudent person should hide their papers and lock up their desks whenever this Gentleman is amongst you.

Scanning Wedderburn's network as the statement finished up, there was a distinct lack of satisfaction. More was roiling in this network, but I had not the pattern data to match it with, the thoughts being so far from my base of observation. As Wedderburn returned a seated position, the presiding network took the compression-relaxation channel.

This hearing is closed.

Mr. Franklin, you are dismissed.

The last statement from the presiding network was punctuated with a sharp spike on the compression-relaxation channel that echoed within the hard confines of the space in which all were enclosed. With that signal, I detected a shift in position as propulsion pulses were queued and executed. With each step, jeers and shouts inundated the space, until the door had been cleared and closed. Just steps from the closed door that would never again be opened, the distinct triple spike of a call to order washed up on compression-relaxation sensors, despite the closed door.

Social Stress

Through some of the breaches that hand been carved through the whorlic shield, I was able to sense a distinct feeling of anticipation. There was a savory unruliness connected to the anticipation. Blasts of energy coupled with the barrage of questioning and accusatory input worked to cycle a number of communication tokens through the central network, but amazingly, none of them were queued for transmission.

Still, the powerful network leading the challenge and supported by the whorlic barrage was rapidly consuming the remainder of the whorlic shield. Gaps were open and patterns were being injected into the fracas of communication tokens that were generally edged and far nastier than had been anticipated. In moments, the tokens received on the compression relaxation network began to wash up at the double bubble. As the bubble rang, a calm descended over the central network.

While the whorlic energies tried to reach the bubble as well, they were not able to intersect it before dispersion. Only the internal search functions accessed the bubble, and the outer shell remained intact and strong. Still, there was a sense of anticipation that was detectable, but it was starting to diminish. With little reaction to feed their own networks, the whorlic attack lost it's edge and began to ebb.

Barrage

After heading out to the whorl and adding a few more pairs to the shield, I returned to the monitoring point, and began a token intercept.

... find that the petition has been based on false and erroneous allegations.

Was recorded, and to my surprise, sent an upwelling of energy to the whorl itself. Such was the reaction that a number of communication tokens began to flitter through the selection process, none of which were affirmative of the statement. As yet, no tokens had been queued.

... is groundless, vexatious and scandalous, only for the purposes of keeping up a spirit of clamour and discontent.

The intercept continued. There was to be no action on the matter of Hutchinson, and now, there was an immense shift in the entire space. A whorlic rush descended upon the central network of my less than esteemed host. In a moment of discomfort, a blob of energy leaked through the shield and began to scatter the patterns in the central network. I responded by queuing up super-tap commands and firing them off to a string of pingers. As the taps fired, the energy leak was diverted to the edge of memory where it might just re-arrange a few upcoming patterns, but not disturb the central command and composure control subsystems of the central network.

The Opening Volley

The network that was positioned at a level above the others began producing compression-relaxation patterns, with a strong tendency to center about a singular frequency which was modulated only slightly to produce the communication tokens. From what I was able to discern at the time, it appeared to be the opening of a group session of some kind, with my esteemed host having submitteed matter of Thomas Hutchinson before the group.

Before the presiding network concluded, there was an outburst from within the ranks of the seated five doublings, which had a great deal more frequency modulation than the other transmission currently finishing up on the compression-relaxation channel. This new network separated itself from the group and moved to a position midway in elevation between the presider and the remaining members of the doublings.

The stream of tokens that were articulated by this new speaker were quite formidable and had a twinge in their presentation that was marked by pings of whorlic energy emanating from the now engaged central network. Additional murmurs on the compression-relaxation channel began arrive from the apparently seated doublings, and the transmitting network increased the amplitude of the generated modulation as the discourse continued. There was a marked lack of pleasure being transmitted whorlicly, and this was cause enough for my host's central network to shift in balance as burps of this unsavory energy overloaded the reprocessing efforts of the whorlic shield, delivering charged jolts to a few of the wrong places.

Call To Order

I dove back below the whorl to check the propulsion queue. Crossing through, the noise level dropped, as the shielding and dispersion functions of the whorl absorbed and converted the excessive whorlic energy into continued suppression and conversion. Setting up and re-connecting with the electron network, I discovered that there were standard greeting tokens queued up and ready to use in an instant.

Propulsion paused as an unusual moment of calm washed across the central network. After a brief pause, propulsion resumed and the interference level began to grow with each executed step. As the approach ended it was possible to discern the locus of at least five doublings of central networks, with one of them floating above the rest, even through the attenuation provided by the whorlic shield. What patterns I could discern were fraught with waveforms and pulses that I was unfamiliar with.

I tapped into the unGrid, as there was a strong stream of information flowing from the photon detectors. As the detectors swept the scene, I was able to make out several photon sources, but getting detail from the unGrid was still problematic. Input levels on the compression-relaxation sensors was moderate in level, and then peaked sharply three times. The three peaks were followed by a immediate reduction in compression-relaxation amplitude, and the level of whorlic interference dropped precipitously.

Moving Target(s)

The number of networks that I could detect out here on the fringes was being affected by increasing amplitude in whorlic frequencies. The cross hatch interference that the modulated noise-form contained was the result of multiple networks operating in close proximity of one another. The synchronization of these networks amplified the peak amplitude as multiple sources interfered and combined.

Offset and Null adjustments were required to compensate for another change in direction, swinging the source of the whorlic interference parallel to our motion. Our speed was not so great as to shift the pulses by a detectable degree, but the direction change did alter the interference pattern. There were several doublings of transmitting central networks at the source of the transmission, the direction change enabling a rough source count.

The clattering input on the compression-relaxation channel had changed cadence for the slower, and had now ceased. Nulls were thrown back to zero, but I had to dial the offset back a notch or two, as the basic amplitude of whorlic frequencies was a consistent drone that rose and fell as interference patterns shifted and turned. I was able to detect the staccato motion of traditional transportation, punctuating some of the interference patterns. With staccato motion making the entire spectrum fluctuate, I realized that there were propulsion patterns running through the central network below.

Horses Spared

A somewhat familiar clattering was intercepted across the compression-relaxation input channels. As the clattering drew to a halt, propulsion pulses were queued and executed. A drop in temperature was recorded once again by the areas responsible for gradients and thermal control. The coverings helped to prevent excessive energy loss when the gradient was steep. Propulsion ended with a upward tick, and a relaxed position was taken up. While the gradient remained steep, there was a reduction in losses to uncovered areas.

I headed upward and outward into the whorlic shield zone, pushing my limits once again in an effort to detect what networks and patters were detectable. It was a somewhat familiar setup, with two large and idle networks forward and a popping network scrambling farther upward to a perch where commands were issued via the compression-relaxation channel. The result of the perched network's actions was to activate propulsion pulses in the two large idle networks, and once again, the familiar clattering resumed.

I had to adjust nulls and offsets to compensate for field distortions caused by the velocity of the central network. The degree of adjustment revealed that transport was far more rapid than direct propulsion on the distant short branch points, and the clattering had become a consistent pattern that matched the propulsion waveforms coursing through the large forward networks. Perhaps such a network would be interesting to experience, for a short time.

Ready To Go

It was an odd end to random time. With little external interference, the resolution process completed early and started to run through some very old patterns that had not been accessed before. I gathered some information from the unGrid in their intercept position, and cross linked it to the source zone which was devoid of pingers. I issued dispatch orders to the network, a pair of pingers would be located in that zone in short order.

Active time took over in a slow and easy transition. The startup process started as usual, buffers were purged and others were filled. Where the normal strength of pleasure was encountered, it was muted and dulled by another process that was beginning to show itself. The usual want session ended, and there was a noted lack of smashed canopy 5+6 ring structures, with extra Sevens, that were commonly increasing in concentration during an initial wand session.

Coverings were already in place, but an additional layer was added and there was the final addition of a topper that surrounded the structure containing the central network. This topper was often deployed before a propulsion session. This case was no different. One of the long branch points was entwined with a stabilizer device, that when applied, made a long branch point work like a third short branch point and it's deceptively long connector.

Diagnostic Data

The expeditionary Electron was pulled into the high-bandwidth communication zone to provide a report. In a short period of time, I learned that the hardened composition of the bubble was formed buy the same randomly pairing group of shield electrons, and that the impulse that we continued to fire was just swirling on the surface. There were, however, some holes in the coverage, and glimpses of the inner treasure patterns were reported.

It was highly unlikely that any external source would be able to penetrate both the whorlic shield an this inner cocoon. With two shifter shields running in different directions, it was beyond practical. Even inserting a set of pingers was of no use due to the continuous random pairing that occurred in the shell of the bubble and likewise in the recently enhanced whorl. Paired and moving, it is nearly impossible to transmit anything other than pops of inter-pair noise.

Besides, I did not need to know what was inside the bubble. I already knew of the transcription record and other items that had been accessed during the formation of the double bubble. What I did discover was just as valuable though. The ability of the whorl to shield and isolate both internal recollections from unintended access, as well as to prevent the undesirable interference from other powerful and whirling central networks, came from the same organizational structure.

Pumping Charge

We selected a willing pinger participant to go for the first ride. Setting them up at the focal point, we began to organize ourselves so that our spins would allow us to contract together slightly, while exerting maximum force on the focal electron. A small jitter by all of us added up to quite a repulsive kick, and in an instant, the focal electron was imparted with some serious velocity.

Running a good spin, we were able to track the electron as it hurtled toward the bubble. I was focused on the impact zone as the focal electron approached and was subsequently engulfed. A small blip of energy emanated from a circular area that was several atoms from the impact area. No other electron were emitted as a result, so we had changed the total charge on the bubble, but not much else.

We started to recruit locals to up the total charge transfer. While they were not as easy to track as a well spun pinger, but they were compatible electrons all the same. It took several doublings of electron impulses before we got the first return ejection. Luckily, it was the original pinger, and it spun up a beacon after ejection. Targeting the beacon signal, I tagged a Shorty for pickup detail and started searching for a viable communication channel.

Under the Umbrella

The whorl was doing a incredible job at keeping interference at bay. For the first time in many cycles, random time was completely local in origin. Lacking the extra interference, the pingers and off-duty electrons from my network were not as happy with the lack of unexpected inputs. I, however, was pleased with the restorative process that was again occurring in the fringes and memory centers of the central network.

I ambled over toward where the compressed and nearly triple wrapped bubble resided. The fortification process that had been undertaken and completed on this pool of coherent memories was formidable, and random time no longer got the bubble to ring and shudder. If I was not already aware of many of the treasures within the bubble, I would have considered it a dormant structure, not unlike any other region that was regenerating.

Just because I was curious, I got some of the off-duty pingers to cloud around on a few Shorties and organize a stimulus barrage on the bubble. Giving the "GO!" signal, pairs of electrons worked the drive mechanisms into a frenzy and made way for the bubble zone, and took up a holding position as I began to organized part of the cloud to form a curved structure with a specialized focal point.

Calming the Storm

It was a strange calm under which the central network was operating. I was no longer able to easily detect the presence of other central networks by accessing the whorlic frequencies, unless I headed out toward the fringes and managed my way past the reprocessing and reclamation zone. To monitor the deluge, external pingers were pushed through the reprocessing zone and then retrieved with their cache of information that was then relayed from the inside.

The full-duplex event on the compression-relaxation channel wound down to a final silence, during which I scanned the whorlic frequencies for penetration. Detectable at just above the noise threshold, a light twinkling was located, and it remained at a stable and low level. No further disruptions to random time were likely to occur with such shielding in pace.

As propulsion commands were considered and finally queued for execution, I continued to monitor the strength of the shield and the interference level. All was working as before, the extra energy from the interference being re-directed to fortification kept the resulting interference in check, clipping off any burst. The whorl reacted to the reclaimed energy by actively clamping the burst as it intersected the enhanced whorl.

Reclamation Response

Energy was being transferred harmonically from the central network into the whorl. The harmonious inputs and simultaneous outputs on the compression-relaxation channel created a powerful field within the central network that coupled into the whorl. While the total power that was actually transferred was minuscule compared to that contained in a plasma or even a large Jar, the transfer was significant in the result upon the whorl.

Stronger and tighter, the density of whorlic pops and clicks had increased to a level that I had not though imaginable. The temporary electron pairs responsible for upkeep of the whorl were occurring at a higher rater than before, allowing the interconnecting mesh of the whorl to twine intently. It required a close approach to the edge zone to comprehend the result this would have.
As external pulse of modulated worlic frequencies impacted the fortified whorl, the degree of disruption and spread had changed. The motion of the whorl was such that it sliced the incoming pulse at the fundamental frequency, dragging each slice away as the energy was reorganized and reused by the whorl, keeping the power level of the whorl at peak capacity. Thus consumed, incoming pulses of disturbance were completely nullified and neatly used to prevent further interference by yet more pulses.

Feeding the Whorl

There were other central networks present. I was able to detect their presence without using the long range detection offered by the external sensitives and the whorlic responders, as there was a conversation of tokens across the compression-relaxation channels. The early sets of tokens that were exchanged had incredible effects on the whorl which expanded and began to crackle more loudly than ever before.

I had seen the whorl do this once before, and at the time, I was unable to record or recall any of the tokens that were exchanged. The unison full-duplex activities that occurred before were confusing enough that I could not match the tokens as I was hopping back and forth between the transmitter and the receiver. The token length was far longer than the propagation delay from transmitter to receiver, and there was the intermingling and harmonic interference that was contained in the received channel.

I kept my focus on the whorl as a unison full-duplex activity began. The response of the whorl was to contract slightly, and tighten up. The full-duplex transmission and reception through the compression-relaxation medium created a waveform in the central network that was in harmony with the natural pattern of the whorl. As the patterns continued, the whorl responded with resonant pulses that bolstered the output and improved the reception.

Binary Day Conflux

This is the third of three Binary Days. Not very binary, there being three of them. It will be a little while before we get another cluster of three more Binary days. If my numbering is correct, now that I've done this for a while, things should repeat and after the next trio, there will be three more trios of Binary days in the coming main cycle, and then it's done, since the main cycle modulus will not be usable as a direct Binary number for another eighty-nine main cycles.

...

I was not sure of the source, but there was consternation arising in the central network. A number of random cycles had occurred, each being more impacted than the last, and this was spilling over into active time, at least at start up. The first few moments of active time were spent banishing the patterns that had wiggled their way through the meshworks and impose their will upon the actions of random time.

That is when I noticed the lack of high frequency signal on the photon detectors. Active time was in full force, coverings in place, and propulsion commands were queued and executed. External sensors registered a drop in random motion, indicating that temperatures were low, and minimal photon inputs were being filtered and fed to central network for loop closure. Propulsion ceased after a short sequence of propulsion moves with a larger vertical displacement, and the externals reported that random motion had returned to nominal.

Binary Day Nexus

Round up the radix patrol. This demands a double check, since 1010 binary and is the same a 10 in the way people count, I've now double checked and triple checked that I'm operating in the correct radix for this most special of all binary days. May your clock oscillate symmetrically, like the one and zero in the date.

...

Adaptation had been a critical to discovering the power of being an Electron, and now, the actions of the whorl were working to impede progress. A number of the high bandwidth channels had become ridden with background noise from the incessant pops and clicks that the whorl shield was de-tuning and spreading. Without the spectral diffusion offered by the shield, whole channels might have been lost entirely.

Presently, the distance-bandwidth product was cut nearly in half, which increased my processing latency for tasks that were needed. Some of the bandwidth was recovered by converting some of the links to slide-talking mode, which had the effect of sidestepping the interference. This was a temporary move, at best, since with each passing of random time, the overall interference level was on the rise.

Interference Factor

I don't really consider a plasma to be a good time. The energy level is so high that they can not even handle a single electron. Imagine being inextricably pulled at high speed toward an opposite charge composed of hot and nasty nuclei and you get to the first part of a plasma. The second part comes as you get too close, and your energy level is accelerated by the thermal radiation to the point where the attractive force of positive and negative mutates.

That mutation is not kind or enjoyable. When the fundamental forces that hold everything together, enforcing order upon the underlying chaos, give way, your entire perspective becomes unimportant, and the new universe takes over. If your world was that of locked One-Eight-Ones in solid form, and suddenly sublimates, you go from solid matrix to widely spaced wildly spinning and vibrating One-Eight-Ones.

It was like this with the Whorl. A permanence had appeared as the whorlic shield was erected and activated. This smoothed out the edgy and nasty external signals and prevented them from entering, disrupting or influencing the central network. It would take far more than the continuous thud of whorlic energy to disrupt the central network. The Electron Network did not fare as well. That's what adaptability is all about.

Frozen Plasma Surprise

The whorl was unusually active, spreading through random time and then creating a void in which random time operated without severe interference. There were still recurring peaks in whorlic frequencies, but the amplitude was greatly attenuated and spread across more of the spectrum. At first, I thought it was part of the session, but after repeating across several sequential random time sessions, I began to realize that the increased external interference was more pervasive.

There were times when the interference from the outside was lower and less-peaky, but these were brief interludes. Random time remained unaffected, and the central network showed no signs of modification due to these interferences. During a 'round the perimeter survey, It was astonishing to see that the whorl itself was capable of muting and spreading the external pulses. Without such a shielding action, random time might be fraught with interference.

From the outer edge of the whorl's shield envelope, I was able to get a better image of the incoming pulses. The modulated noise waveforms were edgy and harsh, designed to exceed the bandwidth of any channel. As they propagated through the shield zone, the component frequencies split and deviated. The only thing comparable in all of my experience was the edge of the plasma that started this whole odyssey.

Retrospective Processing

I began to unwind my path out to the fringes of whorl monitoring, carefully piloting my shorty past the serial marker pingers. I was glad that I had encoded both route and station numbers into each serial number. It made it far easier to ask the next pinger along the path to ring out and be detected. Midway through the transport sequence I reached maximum speed, thereafter slowing for safety.

As I continued my return into the high bandwidth depths of the central and intermeshed electron networks, I checked the interference level from the whorl. It was out there, and stronger than before. The waves were new. Peaks of amplitude with a long decay all modulated on top of a pure tone constructed from the hiss below. The waves were strong enough to wash through some of my electronic communication.

Demodulating the whorlic frequency set was helpful, since I knew that this was a common trait shared by all networks, it would prove to be of ultimate utility. As much as I am loath to admit it, I have noted the deterioration of the meshworks here, as well as some changes in the speed of processing. As long as the processing speed fluctuation is just due to the ever increasing memory load, things remain positive for me.

Demodulation

I just got knocked, and hard. With the sensors dialed to maximum sensitivity, I was wholly unprepared for the blast that arrived in the whorl channel. As I struggled to regain attitude control the sensor system recovered from the shock. It was the over correction that almost de-orbited me from the One that I had been circling. A few extra orbits around the Seven and a Six completed the recovery.

There was a crackle that was echoing within the whorl channel. Reception centers were popping and crackling, and in some cases ringing away. Similar in nature to some of the patterns found in the compression relaxation processing centers, the signal was a pure tone with an occasional warble, all superimposed on the cacophony of clicks, pops and buzzes in the whorl frequency.

Learning to see this wave upon the noise was a new trick, and perhaps it was a valuable lesson. Even with all of the success that has been had, there are still operational interactions that occur with Electrons that not even I have the ability to understand, or the time to comprehend. Sometimes, it's necessary to take a new look from a much further distance to make sense of what appears complex and overwhelming.

Observational Fidget

Sticking to the analysis, I stayed put. With the whorl having activity during both normal and random time, there was no need for me to shift modes or change positions. About the only thing that I could consider was to transfer over to the Eight and try to substitute myself as one of the electrons in the pair as it joined and left the whorl. That was a proposition that could end up in a number of ways that were unsatisfactory.

Continuing the observation of the target pair from my current location kept me only a short hop from being able to connect with the Electron network and the array of marker pingers that I had strewn along the path to get here. The target, however, was just outside the realm of reach for even the lowest bandwidth connection. Jumping over to the Eight, while entirely possible, would leave me unable to summon assistance.

It was going to do what it was going to do, and all I was able to do was detect when it was active. That was going to have to be sufficient. As much as I could probe the details of a single pair of electrons, and watch them enter and leave wholric communication, I could not intercept and analyze the structure or content of the exchange. Perhaps if I replaced, with specially trained pingers, the other six electrons on the Eight, and the two that were oft donated by the Ones, I might have a better chance.

Nothing gets Attention

The secret had to be in the pair. I scanned and probed into a pair that had been active in the whorl. It was two standard electrons. Nothing special here. They were not in my network, nor did they have any special function or feature that would have brought them to my attention. The only thing they had in common was the fact that they could pair up in the outer shell of an Eight, and when paired, they were part of the whorl.

Not always paired, I picked one of the two and began to track the singleton electron. Again, everything was normal, nothing out of the ordinary, to the point that my threshold of boredom was rapidly approaching. I stuck with it longer. And longer. I dithered in a scan for whorl frequencies, and that helped with the boredom a bit. If it was near by, I was going to capture it.

The tightly bundled spectrum of the whorl was a splattering of sources, none of which were local. There was some ebb and flow, but it was definitely there, appearing to not have a central source. Locally silent, I scanned the singleton and the zone around it and then there was a blip. Pairing up and dis-pairing made clicks. As the two electrons' orbits permitted, the paired horizontally pairing and unpairing at apparently random time, each time making a characteristic whorl-click that added to the overall signal as the two zipped along in conjoined orbits.

From Somewhere Else

Even with the new knowledge that the frequencies that made up the whorl were trackable and phase information could be extracted, I still had no clue as to how the whorl affected the main pathways in the central network the way that it did. It was, as if, it was a network made up of vibrating pairs of electrons that were responding to some input source that I had yet to detect. The result was flummoxation for me, but it definitely ruled when it came to random time.

The whorl, if anything, was more unpredictable than predictable. Where it had done some interesting work defining and then hardening the double bubble, I had a sense that there was something more to the weavings of this unrelenting pattern. Observing the effect on the random resolution process and structure construction on the edge of memory brought knowledge that the whorl itself was a level of entropy that must be resisted for the pattern or linkage to persist.

The juxtaposition of the preservative and creative power of the whorl in contrast with the destructive power to render back to random that which need to exist makes the whorl most interesting to me. In the finest of detailed scans, I focused on an electron pair that was often emanating pulses of this whorl, and I never located the source of the entropic vibrations, just the fact that the pulses were there. Something moved the electrons in a way to make the pulses.

Pair Power

Electrons travelling in pairs like to do so at a particular distance, and it was this distance that was key to discriminating some of the waveforms that were located in the whorl spectrum. By starting at this well known distance, we were able to encode the delta between an input and the reference. This provided basic frequency along with amplitude, which remained relatively flat.

The reference frequency was near the maximum of the detectable range. While there might be a great deal of information encoded across the spectrum, there was a limit as to what I was able to extract. This, of course, was based on the fact that the pair was the closest that two electrons could routinely approach without experiencing incredible repulsion. It is a myth that electrons collide. We just push really hard on one another, maintaining equality through equilibrium, and this creates a fundamental reference as well.

Learning to track fundamental frequencies had it's value, and served as a distraction powerful enough that I was shocked at the quietness of the background in normal working regions. The high frequency waveform had already dipped in amplitude and was on track for zero in a short period of time. That distraction became an opportunity extraordinaire as I deployed a few local detector pairs. It was time to expand the net and lurk near the top of the resolution zone. Random time was fast approaching, and so was the whorl.

Another Binary Day

Whoa. This one called for a double check. With craziness that I observed in the data channels last night, one would think that there was a catastrophe some place. I spent a good deal of time intercepting the main stream and decoding some shots of modern people. Of course, that was a bunch of radix-2 work, as always. Now, I look at what I've got working for the update slot and, well, I'm relieved to find that I did punch up radix-10. Have a charged Binary Day!

...

Discovering that the frequencies of the Whorl were trackable outside of the central network gave me bit more confidence in being able to detect central networks that would be, well, interesting. What had me most intrigued was the fact that I was not able to directly detect external impulses in the whorl spectrum. Using the sensitives, mainly positioned near the photon detectors, gave a good directional scan, so I headed in their direction for a more direct experience.

As I followed the ebb and flow of electrons along the high-density channels that formed the photon detector, I began to intercept external pulses in the whorl spectrum once the channel expanded to serve the detector array. Sliding out of the channel would have been an ardent affair if it were not for the transfer electrons that were strategically placed to relay messages from the external sensitives.

Arriving amongst the sensitives, I paused to observe the reception and decode process. Between message transmissions I scanned the locale to compile a structural fingerprint. That is when I discovered the dipole receiver structure that the sensitives were using. A single electron had some chance for signal capture, but it really took a pair that were at a precise distance from one another. Together, they had double the sensitivity since they could resonate with each other, and the distance allowed for superior frequency selectability.

Cornering a Clue

Creating a new spectral template, I forwarded the examples into the electron network with a destination set to be the external sensor electrons from the sensitive group. Those that choose, were welcomed to experiment with patterns in the newly discovered upper band. It was here that perhaps more interesting networks could be located for exploration and study. Within moments, a tracking vector was transmitted. Peter had been detected and was being tracked.

The range of these frequencies was strangely longer than the other signals that I had been interacting with. Detectors were working well, immune from the noise and overlap from the other signals. While the amplitude was low, the background was so quiet that the whispering signal was easily detected and tracked. Getting into the signal was another matter.

The template that I had forwarded was fairly wide, and overlapped a number of short distance local channels that were interspersed with network activity. It was possible that the signal that I was detecting was the internal operation of Peter's network. As I swept the sequence, looking to see if I could confirm the reception from the outwards, I was being bombarded by local noise that did not seem to affect the outwardly sensative pingers. Sweeping onward, I then found a series of shifting peaks emanating from within the central network. There was only one pattern that matched this spread-out locality, and it was that of the ineffable whorl.

Master to Master

Tokens were rapidly queued for compression-relaxation output, aimed at the person who was nearly undetectable. With an an unreadable network, I called up all of the help that I could get.

Your new Penny Post is performing admirably, dear Sir.

Yes. I believe it is. I owe many thanks for your kind discussions. They have proven most valuable.

Then I shan't keep you from your relations any longer. I look forward to the early completion of my annums, thanks to your astute practices and accurate predictions.

Thank you Doctor Franklin. I bid you and your relations, over the sea, the best of wishes.

Peter, you are far too kind.

That second to last token had me bothered, until I retrieved an early lesson that helped the transcription. Having stowed the processed data and a copy of the original for later analysis, I focused my attention to the one that was without pattern, recalling the sensations that were recently recorded.

There was a great deal that I might learn once outside of my current benefactor. For one, I now realized that there was indeed, a discernible pattern, but it was so far up in the spectrum that I had not considered it a viable realm of analysis. This changed rapidly, as I began to detect local patterns in the same band. It was nearly without doubt that Peter was indeed similar, and that I would have had little opportunity to detect Ben from the outside.

Review Duty

The parsing and transcription session ended as the central network queued a set of retrieve and stow commands that returned the transcription wand to a resting place, as well as the other implements that had been accessed. Completed, propulsion commands were then queued as we rose once again, maneuvering amongst the other networks that could be sensed. Propulsion was short, and lead to another retrieval command.

This time, a larger object with a great deal of similarly looking contrast patterns was presented to the photon detectors, as image after image flipped forward. Eventually, a less than complete image was presented and a series of numeric tokens were parsed by the central network. A great deal of processing occurred in rapid bursts whereby two numeric tokens were input processed and then churned by the network to produce a new token that was invariably identical to the next token that was processed by the photon detectors.

There was a small degree of satisfaction as each constructed token matched was was written. A sense of completeness was triggered as the pattern was shuttered once again, followed by a stowage command that returned the multi-image object to it's original resting place. A quick spin-push propulsion command was executed and focus was put upon a person than had approached to close proximity. None of my pingers were even aware of the network inside this person, as it was virtually unreadable.

Sort and Route

Scan, parse, process. Scan, parse, process. It was a repeating sequence that had identical structure, but some of the components that were parsed made small changes in the process that occurred. It was the scanning process that always started the same, and the rest of the sequence followed the more general pattern. Each scan was proceeded by a retrieval sequence, and produced a sequence of tokens that did not match the regularity of communication.

Oddest were the names of people, since they repeated seldomly. It was the places that were more interesting. I recognized the tokens Boston and Philadelphia. There were other place-names to, but most of the parsing sessions pinged these names and then other names that fell within a list of other nodes. Within the central network, these place name has special properties in that they were instantly linked to nearby names, forming a sequence not unlike my serialized structure tags that helped me to identify differing but similar structures.

The central network parsed a sequence of place-name tokens via the photon detectors, and compared them to the internal reference tokens. In one case, I recognized a dip-wiggle sequence, as the tokens "X-Post Boston" were queued and transcribed onto the input item. Unlike the transcription session of the previous active cycle, an additional set of commands were queued to the long branch points. A substance was pinched between the branch points and then allowed to drop atop the transcription. The next item was placed atop the first, post transcription, unlike the previous session where each item was kept in a separate location.

Another Node in the Network

The now familiar dips and bends of my orbit told the story of the propulsion sequence that was queued. It was the negotiation of a number of careful and closely monitored propulsion cycles that jiggled my orbit in a new dimension. Scanning, I requested the token for the concept that was being negotiated. The electron network clicked and popped as it cycled through the token store, ultimately ejecting the answer of Stairs from it's entangled web.

Completion of the monitored and slow upward travel was confirmed by the return to interference from just two dimensions and not three. Discovering several distortions in the background waveforms, I activated the external network location services. Indeed, there were several other networks that were tasked with processing loops that resulted in remarkably similar pulse patterns and waveforms.

Brief compression-relaxation sequences were exchanged. Token intercepts confirmed the now expected acknowledgement of presence and familiarity as focus of Ben's network narrowed. A familiar manipulation and transfer occurred as outer coverings were removed and stowed in an external location, and a new position of attention was taken. The photon detectors began to process high contrast patterns and detail into tokens that were parsed to produce a multitude of manipulation sequences.

Out the Door

As I was pondering the lack of response from the double bubble, propulsion and transfer sequences were queued by the central network. As the patterns played across the network, a number of sensations were recorded as the coverings were improved and augmented. What followed was a familiar manipulation pattern queued for the long branch points. As this command was processed, the thermal reaction sensors registered a drop in energy transfer.

Photon levels were lower than nominal, but far above nonexistent. A brief propulsion sequence was followed by a return to a relaxed position as a minute orbital distortion was observed. Motion was occurring, yet there were no propulsion pulses. The artifacts showed that the motion was far quicker than that produced by personal propulsion. Noise from the transportation process was also observed and coordinated with the data flowing from the compression-relaxation input sensors.

My orbit returned to it's normal bumpy path, without the tilt that was caused by movement. An exchange of pleasant tokens consumed the compression-relaxation channel as a brief retrieval and transfer event was queued and executed. It was a small object, but it did contain an absurdly high concentration of Forty-Sevens for something with little direct utility. At completion, the unmistakable wavefront of pleasure was reported by the external monitors.

Hardened

Working my way back into the central network and re-connecting with the electron network took a little bit of doing. Interference levels were more intense than they had been in some time, but nothing that I had not experienced before. It was one of those things that only occurred when the high frequency waveform was distinctly present in the photon sample. In time, it would pass, possibly to return after the next random session, if there was one.

The regular routine of attitude change, propulsion, coverings, buffer processing and wand time spooled easily from the central network and into the superhighway. Feedback channels were operating well, and the network was operating very much as it had so many times before, despite the increased noise that was impinging on my network's channels. While making my own rounds, I wandered past the double-bubble and tossed a ping at it just to see if it would ring.

At first, I thought I missed and re-checked my targeting system. Finding all in order, I alerted monitor pingers in the area to detect any emission-response that occurred as I spun up a mega tap. Firing squarely at the double bubble, I activated the receivers and started a deep probe. despite the background crackle, I got no return signal, and none of the pingers responded either.

Duality of a Trio

Pondering the perspective of the trio of pingers produced patterns of unparalleled confusion. The only conclusion that I could accept was that I was missing critical information in order to resolve the apparent contradiction. I reversed my sequence, and examined the core facts to create a reasonable starting point, only to discover that the commonality was the nearly instant formation of the triangular structure. The fact that it occurred during a burst in the random session became the first item up for resolution.

A triangle had certain advantages. The canopy structure was formed in such a manner, and I was always able to observe and communicate directly with the other two nodes while I was tinkering on the third. The structure also helped the canopy's swap-drive mechanism maintain synchronization and control which improved the overall performance of the swap-drive. Here, the triangle was central to the structure and locked in place well enough that it survived several additional waves of randomization.

Observing closely the pattern of tugs and pulls that the randomization wave exerted on the structure excited a pattern match when I propagated the pattern into the electron network. These patterns had nothing to do with the blasts from communication to tokens that usually made up the bulk of the input to random time, but I was not able to capture the complete reply as bandwidth was beginning to degrade as background interference levels eroded the quality of my high capacity channel into the electron network.

Unexpected Required

Slipping my way back toward my favorite perch in the central network, I tapped into the electron network in time to see that the high frequency waveform was, once again, being picked up by the photon detectors, but the amplitude was lower than normal and not increasing in amplitude as expected. Random time would continue for some time in this state, but the network electrons that had come to play had already returned to their positions.

A burst of activity welled up and flashed across the central network, catching a number of random patterns in the process and shuttling them to various centers. The unGrid reported odd patterns being recalled and the pingers out on the fringe reported formation of a triangular structure of blocks in the construction zone. I thought the formation of a cycle of blocks to be interesting, and took a quick trip to verify as random time began an encore performance.

Once again, the pulses from Random Time were re-arranging the blocks in the supply zone, but the triangle formation had worked it's way into a central location in the structure. Interrogation of the returned pingers about the event was more than confusing, since the three stories did not add up to a final solution, yet I knew that each of their perspectives was valid. It was now up to me to figure out how all three recollections were valid at the same time, even though they appeared to contradict one another.

Rebuilding Reset

Having spent previous random time sessions watching electrons play and cavort in the communications resolution zone, I had always wondered if this recurring operation had any other effects that were of note. Now that I was out on the fringes of the connected central network and scanning into the vast array of weakly connected component blocks I was beginning to gather more data.

Far from the conflagration in the communications zone, observation revealed underlying patterns and waveforms that were almost physical in nature. The regularity was such that it reminded me of my time in the soup network, but the intensity was far lower. In the completed section, still being patrolled by the singleton pinger, there was no effect from the traversing wave. Things wiggled in response, but the structure remained.

In the flow of blocks, however, each cascade of energy that entered the block field spun and rotated the components as if they were unconnected. A spin was powerful in that it exposed a block's interconnects to other blocks that might have never intersected. In instances, blocks that were tightly bound were broken free as their captors were spun to interact with other nearby blocks. As the wavefronts diminished, a newly preened field of blocks was presented, with a nearly complete set of all possible dual-block interconnections expressed evenly across the field.

Forefront

There was a tendency for electrons to come and play during Random Time, such that it was becoming quite a tradition. What a surprise I discovered when I located two of the three electrons that I had just activated. Released from observation of the forming mega pattern out on the construction horizon, I wondered if Random Time had any kind of effect out in the fringes. With the newcomers here, I was sure to find space to roam out in their part of the network.

I flipped and folded my way along the pathways, carefully displacing electrons in my path to neutralize my current, lest I repulse a critical electron along my path or set off a sleeping pinger. I was a nifty game of my own to avoid those that were specifically looking for events like me. I could not have expected full detection, especially since Random time in full swing.

Arriving at the edge of the construction, I was aghast that only a single pinger was left with the task of monitoring the construction site. It was approaching the size of some of the monsters that I had encountered, making it one of the largest conglomeration of interconnected thought blocks, and it was not even activated yet. I threw a lock on the wandering pinger, making sure that I was some place that it was not. Avoiding a single electron was the easy part. It was processing the low level plunks and twangs from the weakly interacting blocks that was difficult.

Shift Change

There was a shift in the central network's priority, and construction slowed on the entwining structure. I broke free, leaving a trio of pingers to observe and report any increase in activity, unwinding my path back down the sequence of patterns that I had intersected to get here. The serial pingers helped guide the way, and I was back at my favorite observation posts. I knew I was back before I even got there, the din of unanswered traffic washing up on my fringes.

A scan revealed that the high frequency waveform had already diminished. Deeper inquiries returned results of satiety, and indeed, the input buffer status confirmed that I had apparently missed a wand event while lost in observing pattern construction. It was good to know that some processes continued while regular functions continued. Perhaps I would impart similar duties to groups within the electron network.

A moment of quiet descended across the central network, as was common just before completing preparations for slowdown and summoning of the random forces that came to infuse the network with unknown creativity and patterns examined in a context free of conformity. A quick check with the peripheral pingers confirmed that the outermost meshworks were themselves covered with the familiar mantle that wrapped and comforted the resting structure while random time worked it's magic.

More than a Memory

With the number of tokens that were dedicated to communication and the patterns that were composed of these tokens, it could be said that the communication tokens were also the components by which larger ideas and constructs were built. Indeed, there were a great number of com-tokens that had been squeezed into the double bubble which emitted an occasional pulse from it's nearby position.

Here on the edge, however, we were far from the com-token store, and it was clear that there were functional blocks here that were independent of communication. In fact, there were several com-tokens being wired up to the pattern that was being added to. Most of the structure elements that were being added were not, in and of themselves, com-tokens, but they would definitely have the ability to produce a stream of them should the need arise. The cross linking into the com-token pools continued until it was uncanny. Stimulation of this construction zone would light up the central network like rapid-fire plasma bursts.

Study of the linkage exposed the fact that the links being laid down are were largely one-way. The mechanism for activating this structure was the central network itself, so this was not a communications processing structure, inputs were not being connected directly. Rather, this looked a bit more assertive, with the ability to spool detailed com-tokens together. In a way, this looked like a more complex version of one of my data stores, with the internal sequential links having the same structure as many of the com-token links that I had recorded as they were queued.

Memory's Edge

I assigned the next serialization token to a local pinger and sent an increment command over to the storage elements. Inserting the pinger into the newly forming pattern was necessary since the small inversion of transcription was far too deep to be easily seen. Electronic uniqueness was a far quicker means of identification. It just took a local receiver to get good bandwidth and fast response, and I needed to link this copy with the others, so the construction crew was called.

Realizing that I was on the active front of the central network where new patterns could be formed both freely and from previous experience, I scanned into the unconnected regions into which the central network was constantly expanding, to discover that there were often pre-connected blocks that were tweaked and arranged rather than building them from new. It was not until they were connected together that they contained information, and it was the random ability for these interconnections to occur and weakly link together that had me most intrigued.

Another sequence of pulses and patterns arrived via the central network, and a new layer of connections were being assembled and connected to the previously tagged pattern. At one point, a pair of connected blocks were selected, dragging a large number of randomly connected blocks with it. As the connection pulse whipped through the collection, a number of connections were fused together and the remainder were severed, expelling the unused blocks into the component cloud to possibly form other weak connections or other combinations.

Opportunity of Error

As long as we had clear communication, the electron network was usually able to leap ahead of the central network, following the flow of various functions and interacting patterns. With the combination of molecular transmission and guided pulses of electrons, the central network was quite robust and immune to noise. In rare cases, large displacements of electrons were known to affect communications of the electron network and yet leave the central network unscathed.

The replica patterns that I started to tag and serialize played a large role in the robustness of the central network. Scanning into the undifferentiated fringes near an active pattern region, I received several access notifications from locations that were several relay hops away. While it was possible to make direct contact with the reporting pingers, the bandwidth was too low to be of real use. The storage elements in my network supplied the token information.

I was familiar with the pattern that was referenced, and observed some component patterns appear on the outer edges of the active pattern. Each from a different direction, the component patterns were shuttled through multiple channels, and began arriving nearly simultaneously. Most amazingly, the components had linkages that flittered and fluttered automatically, sometimes making the correct interconnection and other times, not. It was then that I discovered that there was a possibility of transcription error to occur when a pattern was duplicated. In this particular case, the assembly error resulted in a new a valuable construction. Even though it was not directly useful, it served as a reference to prevent future incorrect interconnection when and if the pattern was duplicated from this new instance.

Tracks in the Making

Satisfaction was becoming easier to recognize, and I had learned that there were different kinds and strengths of satisfaction, but they all rang the same place in the central network. Occasionally, there were cases where the satisfaction was the result of inputs from multiple zones. The intake of material using wands was easily the most common event that was mediated by satisfaction.

Postponed by the visitor, the wand event completed with a little bit of extra manipulation of the wand and container. While carrying out these recurring tasks, it was common for the central network to drift off and wander through some of the patterns network patterns that were either forming or had a wealth of information that needed to be refreshed. I found many replicas of several patterns, and this increased the availability for these patterns to interact as other nearby centers were activated.

Finding a duplicate pattern was somewhat disconcerting. I had been using these patterns to locate myself, and quickly discovered that I had made an error in direction during my exploration and had to unwind. As I did so, I paused to activate and link a serialized pinger within each pattern. Electronic uniqueness for each instance solved the way-point recognition problem and created new analytical opportunities.

Tracking and Back On

I kept the external sensing mode running as long as I was getting bits of signal. While the looped thoughts were not productive, they were decidedly easy to detect. The regularity of the waveform and the soup-network induced blips make a signature that is quite unmistakable. It was also very commonplace, as I started to receive reports of similar patters from other networks.

Buried in what I would have considered to be noise, the most observant of the Pingers were able to detect, locate and track other central networks as they bobbled and wobbled along. Unfortunately, entropy wins, even in the Electron world, and the pingers lost their lock on the visitor's network pulses as they faded and intertwined into the signals of many doublings of networks. With the myriad of frequencies and pulses, it was amazing that these soupy networks were able to operate in the noisy environments that they did.

Departure of the visitor left the local network to return to it's normal pattern. Quickly, patterns were queued for transmission to the branch points, both long and short. A standard wand was taken up and put to use. In a few deft movements, material was once again gathered upon the wand and raised toward the network, where the molecular detectors engaged in a symphony of activity that was enhanced by other similar detectors that were located on one of the key elements of the compression-relaxation transmission system.

Fleeting Feelings

I activated external detection mode as quickly as I realized that the visitor was leaving abruptly. I pushed some of the more local detectors out to the edge to boost the signal level. Without one of the hovering network nearby, the interference was minimal and the pingers locked in on harmonics that kept most networks humming. Data arrived, confused and uncollated.

The first layer was the maddening pulse of a deadline. Worked against the stress of the clock, there was only so much time left to complete a task, and this drove the underlying frenzy. There was also a strange triple-pulse to the waveform that was helping to drive things, and this was adding to the frenzy. Foremost in the consternation was a mixture of joy and apprehension. The joy clearly came from the confirmation received and a sense of duty, but the foreboding came from a broader conundrum.

It was this uncertaincy that sometimes washed across Ben's network, and it was at times like this that the whorl helped to prop up the central network and provide some guidance that prevented the foreboding from forbidding all processing and locking things down in an causality loop. The pingers were reporting looped waveforms. I could only hope that the loop shadows that we were receiving were temporary. The amplitude did not seem out of control. Yet.

A Corner Turned

I must confirm the accuracy of the letter as received.

It was not the response that the visiting network was looking for. The disarray would have been visible to the laziest of the pingers. In the midst, the whorl folded over upon itself, creating a trap for any pulse that might arrive from the double bubble.

... and your reputation?

That too, is a matter of perspective.

Yes. Perspective.

While the tokens were general, it was the token "reputation" that held the most significance. It was here that the whorl flashed and glittered with a sparkling resonance that built calming wavefronts that slipped into the farthest reaches of the central network. A number of tendrils that had been encapsulated into the outer layer of the double bubble flashed a burst of recognition. Here was a truth that was apparently stronger in perception than the visitor realized.

So, tomorrow then?

Yes, Tomorrow. I'll set the page personally. It may be the last of yours that I ever set.

Perhaps; You consider the honor?

Perhaps.

With that, the visiting network blinked and shuddered it's patterns into an indescribable oscillation. As quickly as he came, he rose and was gone, not waiting for one of the other hovering networks to assist with his departure.

Consternation Foundation

It took me a bit to confirm the assertion of my newly adjusted pingers, but indeed, the pattern matched. This was, no doubt, the same pensive network that had brushed passed not more than a cycle ago and during that erroneous excursion. There was motion and rapid command queuing as the long branch points maneuvered the material container back into the proximity of an energy source and purposely began a rapid transfer.

Before completion, there was a rapid pulse of signals received and processed along the compression-relaxation channel. Tokenization was difficult due to the rapidity, and the tone was somewhat alien to what had occurred on the pleasing day of counting points against the brightness. Flummoxed might have been an accurate description had I known the word at the time, but that may have been the description of my reactions at the time as well.

Regardless of my interpretation, it was clear that there was a genuine inquiry upon the network that was contained in the personage of the caller. It was such that the juxtaposition triggered faint tendrils of fear and apathy at the same time, yet, there was something more behind the reaction of my host's central network. It was then that I recognized the familiar unfamiliar sensation of the whorl, and the odd guidance that it offered to the network.

Polite Call

I counted five impulses arriving on the compression-relaxation channel. The reaction to the impulses began before the fifth pulse arrived. The photon detectors were oriented along the path that maximized the return on the compression-relaxation channel. Curious, I requested a detailed external report on the locations of any other central networks. Flooding back from a good four doublings of Pingers one of the hovering networks was moving toward the impulse source.

One of the responders indicated that yet another network was located in close proximity of the impulses, and even issued a full detection report, filed under the heading of urgency. As motion reports monitored the hovering network, the detailed responder pumped a token into the electron network:

Knock!

As I began the token de-reference, another impulse was received on the compression channel as a squeal of elation was broadcast into the electron network by the detailed responder. I tapped out a review order into the command channels naming the detailed responder as the focus.

Excepting more impulses, I returned my attention to the compression relaxation channel as the next impulse was received. The amplitude was very low and there was another signal present.

Afternoon, Sir.

Was easily processed by the electron network. Tracking the hovering network, it was now in close proximity of the new arrival. And they were moving closer. I, myself, was beginning to detect some familiar interference as the signal strength increased. While in the process of scanning for a pattern match, one of the updated pingers matched entirely on their own. Apparently, they had recognized the nuances of the buffer status preoccupation on the approaching network.

Nominality

The wands had returned to their standard composition of mainly Fifties with a little more than one Twenty-Nine for every eight doublings of Fifties. I specifically requested to be notified of any Eighty-Twos that were detected, and to my surprise, not one ping popped. Wand time had returned to it's normal brevity, but that did not diminish the intensity of the signals that were received from the molecular detectors, nor the reaction of the central network to these inputs.

Activating the external scanning modes that the pingers had been equipped with revealed that there were a few other central networks hovering nearby. Tracking their movement was an interesting exercise, but much beyond that, it was not so productive considering the low signal levels that were detected. On two brief occasions, we were able to pick up the fringes of internal patterns, but none of the networks were energized to the level such that the received patterns were clear and unmistakable.

Only a single wand was used at the second of three normal sessions during the active cycle. The intake session was extended somewhat by the thermal state of the intake material. The explorer-class pingers reported that the agitation level of the contacted material was above and beyond that of the meshworks and soup. This was rapidly confirmed as self preservation centers activated in response to surface sensors that were in close proximity to the molecular detectors. A triplet of command tokens, Hold, Wait and Relax, were queued for general processing as a strong signal began to arrive from the compression-relaxation input channel.

Twisting Tokens

In consideration of the excellence that had been achieved by the electron network, along with the fact that a major enhancement had just been initiated, the rest of random time was allocated to the electrons for their enjoyment. There were a number of new tokens that had been gleaned, and a great number of new pingers had been added to respond to the influx. Part of the fun of being a Pinger is getting to come back and dive into random time to speed the resolution process.
With direct contact to the node in question, the game is to bring back as much of the encoded waveform as possible, playing it back as accurately as you are capable as other electrons evaluate the channels that illuminate and sizzle in response. Other pingers that observe, may find similarities in their own detectable waveforms, and desire to understand the interconnection between their special token and the tokens learned by others; blurting out partial patterns of their own for repetition by the participant.

Many of the latest symbols had to do with the flow of material that was brought to the entire system via wands and other long branch-point activities. I happened that there were a number of tokens that were associated with elimination buffers, and that the deployment of these tokens differed depending on where and whom the central network was and interacting with. In some cases, the tokens were quite graphic and forceful, especially in the presence of those with whom there was a sense of familiarity, provided that the interaction was reasonably private.

Network Enhancement

A lull swept across the central network as active patterns gave way to entropy. I put the finishing touches on the updated that was to be bumped out to the fringes. Monitoring several of the continuous functions, like the soup pump and the gas-exchange system, I was able to determine that we were deeply entranced. It also did not hurt that there was a larger than normal concentration of One-studded Six-Six-Eights flowing in the soup.

Propagating the first update took a little time, since it involved a basic modification to the endpoints. The focus for these detectors was to be their local piece of the central network. In cases where an external waveform resonated with the central network, the protocol was to determine the source of the waveform, and prefix the observation with the external coordinates. The fact that nearby central networks could influence one another was not to be ignored.

Observing that the update was continuing to run on it's own, and the first diagnostic reports showed that the communication protocol had been accepted and internalized. The next update was quick and easy. Restricted to network management, the alert was sent out about a new special function pinger — one that was sensitive to low level stimulation — and regular pingers that showed exceptional ability were to be carefully and quietly identified.

Memorance Moment

It was with the occasional crackle registered on the compression-relaxation channel that the central network slipped in and out of random time. After some urging, random time took hold and began a resolution sequence. The memories of the journey floated past, the individual propulsion pulses lost, only the disconnected images streamed past the unGrid as their permanent place was located and carved into the structure of the central network.

The detour after the event and the delivery of the letter were prominent, causing the doubled bubble to flicker in recognition. Unprocessed was the outcome. It was a void that diffused into the nether regions of the network where the whorl and other complex patterns roamed freely, spreading their tendrils throughout the fabric of which the network was constructed. All that I could discern was a mild apprehension regarding the unwritten future that was faced.

Rising above the nominal din of random time was a spike of signal from the compression-relaxation channel. More energetic than the occasional crackle, the percussive note easily roused the network into full activity as the photon detectors snapped open and aimed a the source of the signal. A brief episode of propulsion and control pulses were queued, mainly involving the upper long branch points. With control restored, the regular ritual of preparation for a full rest now in progress, I was looking forward to updating my own electron network.

All In Good Time

Arrival was from a slightly different direction than was expected, but arrive we did. The reckoning subsystem was pleased with their work and happily reported the arrival. Congratulations were in order, as I had not expected such a meandering return path, but then again, I was surprised with the Seventy-Nine wand event that preceded the excursion.

Illumination was rapidly falling off and the high frequency signal had diminished abruptly. There was far more dark time that usual, but this was somewhat normal. I had learned over time that there was a cycle to this dark time, and it was getting shorter now, if only slightly. The odd thing was that random time did not follow the lack of signal. I just kept random time from occurring until right before the signal re-emerged.

As a low-range flicker of photons began to wash up across the photon detectors, one of the pingers out at the edge of the long branch point communicated contact with Fifties with the occasional Forty-Seven and Twenty-Six thrown in for good measure. This was not a formal gathering, with lots of compression-relaxation chatter, but it was the same sustenance that had been consumed earlier. I even got a report of a long chain of ringlets, just before I realized that a buffer purge was imminent.

Reckoning Reconnoiter

The counting game continued, interspersed between brief propulsion sequences. The navigational group in my electron network was having fits. The little side trip during the gathering was easily resolved, once the same point was reached, the navigation group close the record of traversal and began recording what they considered to be the return path.

At least it started that way. Where one of the turns was expected to continue unwinding the original path, a deviation occurred and a different meandering path began to weave an ungainly path that was generally a reversal, but it took observation from a broader perspective to uncover this truth. To the electrons that were responsible for encoding the turns and steps, it was nary so clear. A few taps of assuring observation was all they needed to keep at the task.

The general photon levels were dropping off slightly, the spectral balance remaining steady and the high frequency line was strong an vibrant. Pointed objects were still being detected and counted, with the tally reaching fifteen before the navigational subsection reported that we were less than eight doublings of propulsion pulses from the origin for this excursion.

Return Stroll

The electron network was processing the propulsion pulses in parallel with my own navigation work. As we compared computations the electrons became more familiar with vector addition and used this knowledge to improve their reckoning skills. While I considered it highly likely that the we would return to the place that we had started, I had computed that we were not on the same course. This made the probability of a temporary destination a non-zero coefficient.

Compared to the original travel to the event, the pace of propulsion had dropped off as more time was spent processing the stream of data from the photon detectors. From what I could discern in the stream, there was a focus on a strong boundary that generally angled and peaked out to a point far above the surface. I was impressed with the upward angle that the photon detectors were being aimed to.

Four!

Was the symbol that was received via the compression-relaxation channel. In response, the photon detectors experienced a sweep and the thin vertical darkness atop the larger silhouette became the center of focus. After a few propulsion pulses, focus shifted in another direction and a similar image was observed, the thin vertical against the bright backdrop. At that moment, the token Five was loaded into the transmission queue.

Entangled Exit

While no buffers had been purged, and in fact, continued to fill, there was a sense of satisfaction present in the central network. As the propulsion sequence resumed a normal pace, I noted the separation and stowage commands that were forwarded to the long branch points. At they were executed and completed, the long branch points were shifted to neutral and allowed to respond to the natural oscillations that emanated from the propulsion sequence.

Each propulsion pulse reversed a previous displacement and after just a few doublings of the propulsion cycle, I began to sense the clatter of multiple waveforms that escaped the concentration of people and their networks that has remained gathered and engaged in compression-relaxation communication. Familiar patterns once again washed up on the receivers and a flood of tokens became recognizable over several different frequencies and inflections.

After same brief interaction with a few of the networks, interposed with odd shuffles and slides performed by the lower propulsive branch points, a regular pattern was queued once again. The roil of tokens received via the compression channel increased in intensity as the long branch points were commanded to make brief friendly contact with other people that were nearby. As the new pattern began executing, the signal level from escaped network patterns diminished in amplitude and compression-relaxation inputs became impossible to resolve.

Polite Passing

The pingers were at it again as the other network approached. I issued a silence order to control the din and free up bandwidth. Low speed propulsion pulses were queued and transmitted. As a threshold was crossed, a new set of pingers were clattering due to the external influence of the other network. In an instant, without missing a beat, a single token was picked and queued on the compression-relaxation transmitter:

Pardon...

Rolled into the gaseous space that separated the two networks. Before the signal was trailed off with a down-dipped pitch that recovered at the last moment, a pattern shift was detected in the nearby network. A slight shift occurred as evidenced by a bump in my orbit and the nearby network had passed the point of closest approach. Fewer pingers were clicking and shifting in response to the intercepted waveforms.

The propulsion pulses increased as distance was increased and travel resumed. Not before a few pulses had been processed, the buffer monitor pinger reported a relief of pressure. Scanning the local central network revealed that there was no change in the local buffers, and once again, this pinger was reporting an external event. The new prefix code and external detection enable commands were nearly complete, and the Pairs were about to get an update assignment.

Intruder Approach

A ripple appeared in the orbit as a propulsion command was processed. I was re-arranged into the opposite direction, watching the position index for a focused object translate across the entire width of space that the photon detectors covered. The pico pulses were increasing in intensity when a warning ping went off in the buffer monitoring region. The reply inquiry checked status of the local buffers once again, and the double check confirmed no local urgency.

Loading up a diagnostic inquiry on the aberrant pinger revealed that it had responded to the intercepted waveform from the approaching central network. The rules by which pingers operated were in need of an update, but now was not the time to accomplish such a sweeping change. I put the conversation aside just in time to review a retrieval command that was being queued for the superhighway and the long branch points.

Observing the entire motion command unfold, the command was processed with a high degree of precision and familiarity. The object of retrieval was similar in nature to the softer coverings that were routinely added to the network's outer shell, but with a higher degree of singleton tendrils, and a photonic signature that was several times higher in magnitude than the nominal network coverings. It was then that commands were issued to both long branch points at the same time.

Dash of Diversion

Propulsion resumed with an unusual quickness. The direction was back toward the gathering, and then it was not. A quick shuffle shifted direction, as a familiar yet unsavory set of signals rushed forward from the molecular detectors. The signal amplitude increased, as the frequency of detection events indicated in increasing concentration of detected molecules. As a maximum was reached, object manipulation commands were queued for the long branch points.

Pingers on peripheral patrol reported a high concentration of Twenty-Nines with high occurrence of Thirties. The occasional Fifty and a silly Twenty-Six were also reported. Other reports indicated collapsed meshworks with a minimum of One-Eight-Ones. It was not an unfamiliar manipulation, occurring mainly at the end of an active session and just prior to system shutdown, or when one of the buffer zones is in need of a purge.

While it may have been possible to purge either of the buffers, it was not yet critical. There were the usual clink and jingle inputs on the compression-relaxation channel associated with the commanded manipulation, which were soon joined by a semi-rhythmic pattern. Matching the recently experienced propulsion sequence, it was clear that another central network was nearing. I sensed pico-bumps in my orbit from strongly circulating patterns in the approaching network. A moment later, the manipulation commands to the branch points had been recalled and reversed without ever having been completed or a purge attempted.

The Corner Turned

The whorl diffused and began exciting most every stored memory that it came in contact with. The unGrid was thrown into a state of overwhelm as the imagery and tokens flooded forward. In the midst of the grand sizzle, the commands to the long branch point were nearly missed. A retrieval order caught hold as a branch point came inward with a grasp and retain command. A pause ensued. A dark spot appeared within the whorl and began to expand.

Panic pingers fired a triplet of pulses, and the intercept was automatic. In moments, the darkened region of the whorl had been infused with electrons, spin tapping their way into a conflagration that was second only to a plasma. Achieving synchronization with the pulses in the whorl, a small cloud of electrons surrounded the darkening region.

A pulse sequence was sent toward the confluence, and washed upon the shell of electrons who duly propagated the wavefront around the dark anomaly and along the pathway toward the central network. It was with a shake and a shudder that the packet was shuttled from it's resting place and carefully aimed. As the release command fired, the double bubble flashed brightly and it's outer shell began to absorb additional energy from the whorl. The anomalous dark region blinked and vanished, reabsorbed, no longer blocking communication within the network.